The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

I am Alex Konte, An accountant ( grade b ) working with Africa Development Bank(ADB), am asking for your support and cooperation to carry out this business opportunity in my department.We discovered an abandoned sum of uS$15.5 (Fifteen million, five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars only) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family of a wife and two children in April 2001 in a Plane crash.Since we heard of his death, we have been expecting his next-of-kin to come over and put claims for his money as the heir, because we cannot release the fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.Unfortunately, neither their family member
nor distant relative has ever appeared to claim the said fund. Upon this discovery, I and other officials in my department have agreed to make business with you and release the total amount into your account as the heir of the fund since no one came for it or discovered he maintained account with our bank, otherwise the fund will be returned to the banks treasury as unclaimed fund. We have agreed to compensate you with 40% of the total amount.Upon the successful completion of this transfer, I and one of my colleagues will come to your country and mind our share. To commence this transaction, we require you to immediately INDICATE YOUR INTEREST by a return e-mail.The INDICATION of your interest is very important as to enable us file letter of claim to the appropriate departments for necessary approvals before the transfer can be made. Note also, this
transaction must be kept STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL because of its nature. I look forward to receiving your prompt response.